Making agriculture sustainable is a global challenge. In the European Union (EU), the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is failing with respect to biodiversity, climate, soil, land degradation as well as socio\uffe2\uff80\uff90economic challenges.
The European Commission's proposal for a CAP post\uffe2\uff80\uff902020 provides a scope for enhanced sustainability. However, it also allows Member States to choose low\uffe2\uff80\uff90ambition implementation pathways. It therefore remains essential to address citizens' demands for sustainable agriculture and rectify systemic weaknesses in the CAP, using the full breadth of available scientific evidence and knowledge.
Concerned about current attempts to dilute the environmental ambition of the future CAP, and the lack of concrete proposals for improving the CAP in the draft of the European Green Deal, we call on the European Parliament, Council and Commission to adopt 10 urgent action points for delivering sustainable food production, biodiversity conservation and climate mitigation.
Knowledge is available to help moving towards evidence\uffe2\uff80\uff90based, sustainable European agriculture that can benefit people, nature and their joint futures.
The statements made in this article have the broad support of the scientific community, as expressed by above 3,600 signatories to the preprint version of this manuscript. The list can be found here (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3685632).
A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.
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Monte Carlo modelling", "description": "Understanding the transformation and transport of manufactured nanoparticles (NPs) in aquatic systems remains an important issue due to their potential hazard. Once released in aquatic systems, NPs will interact with natural compounds such as suspended inorganic particles and/or natural organic matter (NOM) and heteroaggregation will control their ultimate fate. Unfortunately, systematic experimental methods to study heteroaggregation are not straightforward and still scarce. In addition, the description of heteroaggregation rate constants and attachment efficiencies is still a matter of debate since no clear definition exists. In this work, an original cluster-cluster Monte Carlo model is developed to get an insight into heteroaggregation process descriptions. A two-component system composed of NPs and NOM fulvic acid monomers is investigated by considering several water models to cover a range of (relevant) conditions from fresh to marine waters. For that purpose, homo- and hetero- individual attachment efficiencies between NPs and NOM units are adjusted (NP-NP, NOM-NOM and NP-NOM). The influence of NP/NOM ratio, NOM-NOM homoaggregation versus heteroaggregation, and surface coating effects is studied systematically. From a quantitative point of view, aggregation rate constants as well as attachment efficiencies are calculated as a function of physical time so as to characterize the individual influence of each parameter and to allow future comparison with experimental data. Heteroaggregation processes and global attachment efficiencies corresponding to several mechanisms and depending on the evolution of heteroaggregate structures all along the simulations are defined. The calculation of attachment efficiency values is found dependent on NP/NOM concentration ratios via coating effects, by the initial set of elementary attachment efficiencies and influence of homoaggregation. Marine water represents a specific case of aggregation where all particle contacts are effective. On the other hand, in 'ultrapure' and 'fresh waters', a competition between homo- and heteroaggregation occurs depending on the initial attachment efficiencies therefore indicating that a subtle change in the NP surface properties as well as in the water chemistry have a significant impact on heteroaggregation processes.", "keywords": ["SDG 14 \u2013 Leben unter Wasser", "FATE", "0211 other engineering and technologies", "02 engineering and technology", "SILVER NANOPARTICLES", "01 natural sciences", "Nanoparticle", "ddc:550", "105906 Environmental geosciences", "SDG 14 - Life Below Water", "Monte Carlo simulation", "OXIDE NANOPARTICLES", "0105 earth and related environmental sciences", "ddc:333.7-333.9", "Natural organic matter", "NANOMATERIALS", "info:eu-repo/classification/ddc/333.7-333.9", "info:eu-repo/classification/ddc/550", "Surface coating", "ENGINEERED NANOPARTICLES", "Attachment efficiency", "Nanopartide", "TITANIUM-DIOXIDE NANOPARTICLES", "TRANSPORT", "AQUATIC ENVIRONMENT", "TIO2 NANOPARTICLES", "Natural Organic Matter", "13. 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In this context, we present here an original approach to better understand the surface charge electrostatic properties of spherical nanoparticles (NPs). The ion distribution around one nanoparticle is investigated using Monte Carlo simulations and by adjusting a wide range of parameters including NP properties (surface charge density and site distribution), salt concentration (ionic strength and cation concentration), and salt valency (mono-, di-, and trivalent salt). A canonical Metropolis Monte Carlo method is used to reach equilibrium states and a primitive Coulomb model is applied to describe the electrostatic interactions between explicit discrete sites, counterions, and salt particles. Our results show that the presence of explicit surface charges on the NP and in solution has a strong influence on the local ion distribution and on the effective surface charge of the nanoparticles. The increase of surface charge density reduces the NP effective charge by the formation of a condensation layer around the nanoparticle. However, a limit of condensation is achieved due to steric effects and electrostatic repulsions. The presence of di- and trivalent cations is also found to strongly modify the effective charge and improve condensation state as long as electrostatic repulsion between the cations close to the surface are not so strong. At high trivalent cation concentration, the NP effective charge is greatly reduced and the local environment around the nanoparticle becomes more structured with the formation of a multi layer structure composed by anions and cations.", "keywords": ["ddc:333.7-333.9", "info:eu-repo/classification/ddc/333.7-333.9", "info:eu-repo/classification/ddc/550", "ddc:550", "02 engineering and technology", "0210 nano-technology", "01 natural sciences", "0104 chemical sciences"]}, "links": [{"href": "https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acs.jpcb.6b05104"}, {"href": "https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcb.6b05104"}, {"rel": "related", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/The%20Journal%20of%20Physical%20Chemistry%20B", "name": "related record", "description": "related record", "type": "application/json"}, {"rel": "self", "type": "application/geo+json", "title": "10.1021/acs.jpcb.6b05104", "name": "item", "description": "10.1021/acs.jpcb.6b05104", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/10.1021/acs.jpcb.6b05104"}, {"rel": "collection", "type": "application/json", "title": "Collection", "name": "collection", "description": "Collection", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main"}], "time": {"date": "2016-08-09T00:00:00Z"}}, {"id": "10.1039/c7en01119a", "type": "Feature", "geometry": null, "properties": {"updated": "2026-05-30T16:18:27Z", "type": "Journal Article", "created": "2018-02-07", "title": "Heteroaggregation of nanoplastic particles in the presence of inorganic colloids and natural organic matter", "description": "The presence and accumulation of micro- and nanoplastics in marine and fresh waters represent a huge environmental concern.
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